THE STORY of Joseph and his brethren, beautiful
in its simplicity as a narrative, is deeply
interesting and instructive, from various
viewpoints.
One lesson would be the unwisdom
of a parent in showing too great a
preference for one child above another, and
thus cultivating amongst the children a
spirit of envy.
Another lesson would be
along the line of the unwisdom of telling
even our dreams to unsympathetic ears: as
when Joseph told his dreams to his brethren.
In the one
dream, he saw eleven shocks of wheat bow down to one
shock, which was his.
In the other dream, he saw the sun,
the moon and the eleven stars all doing homage to him.

Joseph was not to be blamed for having these dreams.
Unlike the majority of dreams, they apparently came not
from indigestion, but were from the Lord.
Joseph was
not even to blame for artlessly telling the dream to his
brethren; and evidently this was the very thing which the
Lord intended should be done.
The Lord foreknew the
jealousy of Joseph's brethren, and how envy would be cultivated
in their minds; and He gave the opportunity for it;
for He had already mapped out Joseph's subsequent experiences,
which the envy of his brethren merely helped
to accomplish.

We may, however, learn the lesson that in general it is
the part of wisdom to keep to one's self truths not necessary
for another to know which might merely arouse opposition.
Jesus encouraged this very thought, saying,
"Cast not your pearls before swine, lest they turn again
and injure you."
Very deep truths connected with the
Divine Plan and with Christian hopes had better not be
told to others than those for whom they are intended by
the Lordnamely, the meek.

JOSEPH A TYPE OF MESSIAH

The most important feature of today's Bible Study is
that which in addition to all that we have suggested,
recognizes Joseph as a type, or prophetic picture of Christ,
the Messiah.
Joseph was kind to his brethren and was
on an errand of mercy to them when their envy plotted
his death, and later on sold him into slavery in Egypt.
His brethren hated him without a causemerely because
he was good, because his father loved him, and because
God in the dreams foreshadowed his coming exaltation.

Joseph's brethren should have said, "Let us rejoice that
we have so noble a brother.
Let us rejoice if it be God's
will that he should be very highly exalted.
God's Promise
made to our grandfathers, Abraham and Isaac, and to our
father Jacob, may thus be reaching a fulfilment.
Let
God's blessings come in whatever way He sees best.
We
will rejoice with our brother, as we see that he is pleasing
to God and to our father Jacob.
We will seek more and
more to copy his character."
But they were envious to
the point of cruelty, first resolving to murder him, and
later, merely as an alternative, to sell him as a slave.

Later on when his father and the entire family came
into Egypt to live in Goshen, they all did obeisance to
Joseph, as the representative of the Egyptian Government,
thus fulfilling the second dream.
But all of these experiences
were at the time dark.
They all looked as though
the Lord had less love for Joseph than for any others of
his family, until the time came for his exaltation to the
throne.
Then everything changed.

"WHICH THINGS ARE AN ALLEGORY"

The allegorical meaning of all this, as applied to
Joseph, is that he was also hated without a cause.
We
read in Psalm 69:4, "They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head."
Jesus quoted this
statement and applied it to Himself, saying, "They hated
Me without a cause." (John 15:25.)
The brethren of
Jesus were the Jews, who crucified Him.
But there was
no cause of death found in Him.

We perceive that it was for envy that they delivered
Him up and called for His crucifixion, because His works
were good and theirs were evil; because he taught the
way of the Lord more perfectly than they; because He
declared to them that the time would come when they and
all others would recognize Him as the Messiahcoming
in the clouds of Heaven with power and great gloryand
would bow the knee to Him.

As with Joseph, disaster, treachery and shame prepared
the way for glory and honor on the throne of
Egypt, so with Jesus.
His trying experiences proved Him
loyal to God and led onward to His exaltation to the right
hand of Divine Majesty.
St. Paul refers to this, saying
of Jesus, "Who for the joy that was set before Him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the Throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2.)
Again he says, "Though He was rich, for your sakes He
became poor, that ye through His poverty might become
rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9), even as the experiences of
Josephall of his humiliationprepared the way for him
to be succored and honored by Pharaoh.
Again we read
of Jesus, that "He learned obedience by the things which
He suffered; and being made perfect [through suffering],
He became the Author of eternal salvation to all those that obey Him."Hebrews 5:9.

"IF WE SUFFER WITH HIM"

The Scriptures assure us that in God's great Plan, not
only Jesus is to be exalted to the Throne as the world's
Messiah, but with Him is to be a company of brethren,
sharers of the same glory, honor and immortality.
And
these brethren, in God's great Purpose, are required to
pass through similar experiences to those of their Elder
Brother Jesus.
Their experiences, therefore, are illustrated
also in Joseph's experiences.
They are not on an
equality with their Elder Brother.
He is designated their
Head, their Chief, the Captain of their salvation.
So we
read again, that God, "in bringing many sons to glory,
made the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."Hebrews 2:10.

And all of the company of sons received under this
great Captain must similarly be perfected through
sufferings.

Does not this account for the trying experiences of the
Church during the past nineteen centuries?
The Apostle
John declares, "As He was, so are we, in this world"; and
again, "The world knoweth us not, because it knew Him
not."
As Joseph's brethren were blind to the fact that
their brother would be their savior from famine, as well
as the savior of the Egyptians, so the world fails to realize
that only through The Messiah will any have eternal life.

In the very same connection in which Jesus mentions
that He was hated without a cause, He plainly forewarns
all of His elect followers that they must similarly expect
to be hated unjustly.
We read, "If the world hate you, ye
know that it hated Me before it hated you.
If ye were of
the world, the world would love its own; but because ye
are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you.
Remember the
word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than
his lord.
If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute
you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep
yours also.
But all these things will they do unto you for
My name's sake, because they know not Him that sent Me.
...But this cometh to pass that the word might be
fulfilled that is written in their Law, They hated Me without a cause."John 15:18-25.

We give in full the same text from which our Lord
quoted, "They that hate Me without a cause are more
than the hairs of Mine head...Let not them that
wait on Thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for My
sake; let not those that seek Thee be confounded for My
sake, O God of Israel.
Because for Thy sake I have borne
reproach: shame hath covered My face.
I am become a
stranger unto My brethren, and an alien unto My mother's
children.
For the zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up;
and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are
fallen upon Me.
Reproach hath broken My heart; and
I am full of heaviness; and I looked for some to take pity,
but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
They gave Me also gall for My meat; and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink."Psalm 69:4-9,20,21.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE FACTS

We have considered the factsthat Jesus and all of
His followers, according to Divine intention, have suffered
shame and contempt.
We perceive that, in the case of
Jesus and of the early Church, the persecution came from
their brethren according to the fleshfrom the Jews.
And
since then, all the way down the Gospel Age, the persecutions
of the Church, the brethren of Jesus, the Household
of Faith, have come from their brethren, too.
These
brethren are not Jews, but Christians.
As the Jewish religionists
in Jesus' day persecuted their more righteous
brethren, so since then nominal Christians have been the
chief persecutors of the Lord's faithful followers.

This persecution has come upon faithful souls of
nearly every denomination.
And, sad to say, this persecution
has come from unfaithful souls of nearly every
denomination.
Presbyterians, Covenanters, Episcopalians,
Roman Catholics, Methodists and Baptists have all
endured persecutions from blinded brethren; and blinded
ones amongst themselves have also shared in the
persecuting work.
In nearly every case the profession has
been made that the persecuting was done for the glory of
God.
Thus the Lord through the Prophet expresses the
matter, saying, "Your brethren that hated you, that cast
you out for My name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified!
But He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed."Isaiah 66:5.

Already the world in general, including the Jews, realize
that a great mistake was made in persecuting Jesus
unto death.
Already to some extent similar transgressions
against the faithful followers of Jesus have been
recognized.
And yet the same blindness, from the same
envious disposition, leads on to persecution even in our day.

The majority admit that they do not know very distinctly
much about God or much about the Bible.
They [R5215 : page 109] pray for light, and sing, "Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling
gloom."
And yet, if any light appear, if any
voice of love or tenderness be heard, directing toward the
dawning of the New Day, and pointing out with clearness
the riches of God's grace and the lengths and breadths of
His mercy, immediately their songs for light cease, and
their stones of ridicule and slander are hurled.
And why?
Lest peradventure there should be any change; lest any
one should get further light; lest the Divine promise should
be fulfilled, and a new Dawn should be ushered in.

But what is the philosophy of these facts of history?
Why has God permitted, yea, ordained that Christ should
suffer, and that all who would walk in His steps must share
in His experiences of ignominy and shame and reproachsuffering with Him?
In Jesus' case, the Father used the
trying experiences to test the love and loyalty of His Son,
and to demonstrate His obedience to angels and to men.
Intending to confer upon Him very great glory and honor,
the Father would have all to see, as He saw it, the
worthiness of the Logos, subsequently Jesus.

In a symbolical picture the Heavenly hosts are represented
as acknowledging the propriety of the high exaltation
of Jesus, because of His faithfulness unto death, saying,
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power,
and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and
glory, and blessing."
And if such a demonstration of the
worthiness of Jesus, the Logos, was necessary or proper,
much more necessary would it seem that an elect Church,
being gathered from amongst a fallen race, should be
proven loyal to God to the very lasteven unto death.
There is a difference, however.

In the case of the Master, it was a demonstration that
He was perfect before He left the Heavenly glory, and
perfect also when He became the Man Christ Jesus"holy,
harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners."
"In Him
was no sin."
In the case of His followers, the imperfection
of the flesh still remains; but they are judged, not according to the weaknesses of their fleshof hereditybut according to the love and zeal of their hearts.
And
this loving zeal is witnessed to by their endeavor to walk
faithfully in the footsteps of their Leader and Savior,
overcoming to the best of their ability the weaknesses
of their flesh, and "showing forth the praises of Him
who called them out of darkness into His marvelous light."